Etc...
And don' t you forget it!
She has one of the more unusual names among world leaders, but for Indonesian President Megawati Sukarno-putri, that's no excuse for not pronouncing it correctly. Consider her reaction when she was introduced to business executives last weekend during a break in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Mexico. Attempting to honor the spelling on official government documents Soekarnoputri the master of ceremonies stressed every vowel. That did not sit well. "I would like to give my name correctly," she said when her turn to speak came. "It is not Soay-karnoputri, but Sue-karnoputri. That's my name."
Speaking of names, you'd think every Briton could identify his own prime minister, right? Wrong. A new survey of 1,063 people, "Is Britain Dumbing Down?", found 17 percent of respondents unable to cite Tony Blair as head of government. On the other hand, 1 in 10 was able to list up to five of the characters there are 28 (one of them a dog) in the TV series, "EastEnders."
Tracking China's wealthiest capitalists isn't easy. In a ranking of entrepreneurs, Forbes noted a reluctance to cooperate after last year's No. 2 was accused of tax fraud. Still, the minimum needed to make the magazine's list this year was $84 million up from $6 million when it debuted in 1999. The top 10 on Forbes' list, their industries, and estimated worth (in millions):
1. Larry Rong Zhijan (airlines, trading, utilities) $850
2. Xu Rongmao (investing) 780
3. Sun Guangxin (chemicals) 600
4. Lu Guanqiu (auto parts) 570
5. Chen Lihua (real estate) 560
6. Liu Yonghao (animal feed, finance, real estate) 540
(tie) Ye Lipei (real estate)
8. Liu Yongxing (animal feed) 480
9. Liu Hanyan (fish farms) 360 (tie) Guo Guangchang (retail, real estate, pharmaceuticals)
